Ant-Man (2015), PG-13, ★★★1/2

Paul Rudd as Ant-Man, not his likely choice.

A lesser known superhero or lesser known group of superheroes can come out of nowhere to surprise and delight an audience. Look what happened last year with Guardians of the Galaxy. Flawed, yes, but it was a total fun entertainment from beginning to end and as I watched the movie more times, my initial reaction was in the past and I enjoyed it more and more that I put it on my honorable mentions list last year. Every time I watched that movie it was the exchange of dialogue between the main cast that kept me laughing repeatedly and the action, of course, is exciting. We were never familiar with the next superhero that is released this weekend, but despite a sluggish first third, the movie achieved in something rare that it got a lot better as it went along. The movie is off-beat and in small scale, but it is still a fun superhero movie.

Scott Lang (Paul Rudd) is a thief who just got out of prison staying over at Luis' (Michael Peña) place with his roommates, Dave (T.I.) and Kurt (David Dastlmachian) as well as Luis hooking him up with a job at Baskin-Robbins. Unfortunately, he is let go due to his criminal record. But, Luis tells Scott that he got a tip for an inside job to steal something, but Scott replies that his past with stealing certain stuff is behind him.

Hank Pym (Michael Douglas), the former head of Pym Industries, returns after many years since he resigned from his company. He reunites with his estranged daughter, Hope (Evangeline Lilly), as well as his former protege, Darren Cross (Corey Stoll). Cross shows Hank his latest project - an updated version of Hank's Ant-Man suit - The Yellowjacket. Like the Ant-Man suit, the user can shrink into a miniature size and defeat enemies using strength that is applied to the suit. One man does not like the project and Darren, let's just say, ties up loose ends for the person who did not like his work.

After stealing some blueprints and the Ant-Man suit, Scott tries the suit on in the bath tub and presses the right button to make him shrink and Scott hears Hank's voice speaking to him through the mask and he goes through a myriad of certain events including a party and a face-to-face with a rat. Unfortunately, Scott sneaks back into the house and he is arrested but with the help from Hank, Scott escapes from jail and he is held at Hank's house with Hope. Hope and Hank teach him everything about the Ant-Man suit and how to control his abilities with some clunky tools and funny behavior.

Douglas and Stoll face off. 

This movie is all-around fun and in my opinion, I think this movie will stand out as probably one of the underrated movies in the Marvel superhero genre because we have never heard or are familiar with the character of Scott Lang and Ant-Man. However, what I really liked about this movie is that the film is small scale and I was enthralled because I did not have big explosions right in my face for most of the movie and the climax is certainly hilarious and small-scale and quite inventive for the genre. I feel like nowadays that most superhero movies have to be bigger but they are a bit overstuffed sometimes with many characters and massive set designs.

Paul Rudd does not seem the perfect actor on paper to play Ant-Man but on-screen he captures the out-of-luck person with some charisma, humor and expendable action that he is so likable that we enjoy being with him for most of the ride. Michael Douglas (it's great to see him again) plays the doctor with ease but also does not push the envelope delivering some funny lines and committing to his presence of being powerful to people to not mess with him. I saw a few echoes of his character in Falling Down at times. Michael Peña is hilarious as the sidekick who urges Scott to do one job. Corey Stoll is fine but sometimes his villainous character was too similar to Jeff Bridges' villainous character in Iron Man. I was not enthused by Evangeline Lilly's performance as the daughter because she felt like an out-of-place character who is there to deliver the emotions and does not have much chemistry with Rudd, even though she has only one good scene with Douglas.

I would imagine what Edgar Wright's version of this movie was like on-screen but I like director Peyton Reed's version because he takes a small-scale and different superhero film and transcends the material to imaginative ride with Ant-Man shrinking and getting along with ant companions and also going to certain places in any particular item or object. The visual effects are neat. I appreciate that the movie is not as dark as previous superhero films and persuades the audience to be entertained by the humorous material. Although it does not have a smooth beginning, the movie's second and third acts redeem quite well as this is a very fun and very good movie that will entertain many.

***1/2